Fat spreads such as butter and margarine having 40% and less fat while desirable have been observed to suffer from severe emulsion instability after prolonged storage at refrigerator temperature. Pools of oil and moisture were observed in such products. It is believed that the fat of the products re-crystallized upon storage causing the emulsion instability problem.
It is known in the art that removing milk proteins from the aqueous phase of low fat spreads can address stability problems. However, removing the milk proteins from the compositions causes an unacceptable oral response and stable products in the presence of milk proteins require the presence of a thickening or a gelling agent in the aqueous phase. Suitable gelling agents such as gelatin, however, adversely effect taste and are rather more expense to process than margarines processed on so-called traditional processing lines as higher hygiene standards are required.
It was thus observed that low fat spread products having long term stability for up to at least 5 weeks when stored at 5.degree. C. could be provided. Such products contain less than 0.5 wt. % of a non-proteinaceous fat recrystallization inhibitor in combination with less than 0.1 wt. % milk protein, without the addition of a proteinaceous emulsifier.